Dragon's Claw: Family Life
by RyokoZweiRavenfall
Summary: Bits and pieces of life with the Dragonwings, both during and after the main story. One-shots. Spoilers for 'Fire Emblem: Dragon's Claw' and Awakening.
1. The Flying Archer

**Hello, readers! Welcome to this series of one-shots for my main story!**

 **These stories will be significantly shorter than my usual chapters most of the time, around 1000 words, and they will be coming out _randomly_ on the weeks Dragon's Claw does not update. They will contain SPOILERS for the story, but only take place in or after already posted chapters.**

 **Each story has its own warnings, both positive(like fluff) and negative(like swears). It's also clearly stated when each one-shot takes place. Some of these one-shots may be supports, in which case the rank and characters involved will also be stated, or may be prequels/sequels for previous one-shots.**

 **Disclaimer: All characters except Ryoko and Levi, who are mine, are from various FE games. Thus, I do not own them. The situations they find themselves in, however, are another matter entirely.**

 **This is how I imagine the girls got to choose their respective specializations, mostly Mather's bow.**

. ~ ° ~ .

 _ **Dragon's Claw**_

~ **Family Life** ~

 **The Flying Archer**

(Timeline: post-Chapter 20 - Darkening Horizons, while traveling towards Plegia)

(Warnings: Dragonwings bonding, insecurity, mild swearing from Ryoko)

. ~ ° ~ .

"So!" Ryoko said, getting everyone's attention, "What are you all interested in as a secondary job?"

She got blank stares in return.

The Dragon sighed, "I mean, you're all Pergasus Knights— plus a mercenary Dragon —and all that, but what would you go for if you weren't?"

"I'd rather be able to focus on my magic full time." Levi replied.

Ryoko nodded sagely, "Yeah, I'd like to be able to experiment more often as well, even if it tends to blow up in my face."

Sumia stifled a giggle.

"Well, I've been thinking of becoming a Dark Flier lately." Cordelia said, "…But with all that's been happening I don't think I'll be able to get started anytime soon."

"Really?" Sumia asked, "Isn't that really hard?"

"Yeah." Mather agreed, "I've heard that the training is harsh enough that even Lieutenant Frederick hesitates a little."

"I'm confident I can manage," the redhead stated proudly, before deflating, "Unfortunately, there's no one free who can get me started on magic."

"That's a shame." Frau murmured sadly, "It sounds really interesting."

"At least you have an idea of _how_ to approach possible teachers." Verna sulked, "I wanted to learn how to use a staff since, like, forever, but now the only ones readily available are Princess Lissa and Lady Maribelle. I guess I'll have to stick to my old sword…."

Sumia frowned, "What's the problem with that?"

The orange-haired woman sighed, "Well, Lady Maribelle is someone I have no idea how to talk to, and she'll take offense no matter what I say. And the Princess is so far above my station…."

"She doesn't care." Ryoko told her, "Neither of them cares much about their title, except for the fact that it means they have the responsibility to keep their people safe."

Verna looked down, "Still…."

"I want to enchant a rapier!" Levi shouted suddenly.

Everyone stared at him in disbelief.

"What?" he asked innocently, "It seems really fun, and get a better weapon."

"O…okay?" Ryoko said hesitantly, "Anyone else wants to add something?"

Levi looked pleadingly at the girls, wishing to avoid the topic.

"Well… I'd like to learn healing as well." Sumia volunteered, "But I'm so useless and I can't even hold a spear right! I'd be no help with the Captain if I spent less time training."

"That's not true!" Ryoko cried indignantly, "You're _not_ useless! In fact, if it wasn't for you, the Boss would have been a Feroxi pincushion by now!"

Sumia blushed at the reminder of her actions at the Longfort.

The lone male of the group turned to Mather, who had yet to express her opinion, "What about you?"

"And what about that time when you saved us all from Sully's idea of cooking?" Ryoko continued listing, "Or that other time when we were attacked by that bear and you—"

"I'd like to learn archery." Mather blurted.

Any semblance of conversation halted immediately.

The azure-haired woman shied from the intensity of everyone's stares.

"I-I-I mean… I'd like to have some range…." She explained nervously, "But I'm absolutely rubbish at any kind of magic and I can't throw javelins to save my life…."

"BRILLIANT!" Ryoko shouted enthusiastically, "It's absolutely brilliant!"

The disbelieving stares turned to the blue-haired Dragon, who ignored them.

"By using a bow you would be able to keep at bay other flying units and give them a nasty surprise, not to mention the increased range because of your higher ground and the possibility of status arrows…."

Mather stared wide-eyed at the shorter woman, "You mean… I could learn?"

"Well, it'll be absurdly hard." Ryoko admitted, "Building up your strength and getting your aim to acceptable levels would already be difficult, but we also would have to get your Pegasus used to you shooting a bow from very close, teaching her to keep steady when you're shooting, and then get you used to moving and shooting in the air."

Mather looked down dejectedly, "I'll never get it at this rate…."

"Not if you give up that easily!" Ryoko snapped, "Do you think they built Ylisstol in a single day?"

The azure-haired woman shook her head.

The Dragon smiled, "Thought so. What I meant to say is… it'll take a really long time to master of you make the commitment. While you might be able to use a weapon pretty quickly, you won't be using that bow alongside your lance for at least thrice as long."

She shrugged, "On the other hand… A flying archer. A motherfucking _flying_ archer. There's very few more badass than _that_."

Mather beamed at her happily, and the leader of the group of fliers dragged her away while enthusiastically ranting about the advantages and total badassery of shooting arrows _from the sky_.

Levi blinked, and realized that because the girls were under Ryoko's protection, he now had _responsibilities_ and he had to start training them somehow.

He sighed.

"Sumia, why don't you see if Lissa can teach you and Verna how to use healing staves?" he suggested, "It might be better to have trained healers at hand in the next few weeks, just in case."

"Little experience has to be better than nothing." Verna reasoned, "But is it alright for someone like me to learn form the Princess, sir?"

"None of that 'sir' nonsense, please!" Levi waved her off, "I'm not a knight. And, yes, it's alright as long as she agrees to it."

At this, he looked pointedly at Sumia, who could be pretty forceful if she wanted to.

"That means no annoying her into it, Sumia." He chided sternly.

The clumsy woman's face fell at seeing her plan to rope Lissa into teaching her to use healing magic.

He smirked, "Bribing, however, is perfectly acceptable so long as you remember not to go overboard."

Sumia smiled happily and cheerfully skipped away, dragging Verna with her.

Levi sighed. "Well, let's find Ricken and Miriel. They'll be able to explain this better than I."


	2. Names, Horses and the Multiverse

**Hello again, readers!**

 **I'm leaving you with another one-shot while I work on the next chapters and my NaNoWriMo novel. It was just a random little thought while lacking inspiration for either project.**

 **Said thought was, how would Ryoko and Levi's habit of going off world at random times come into play with their discussions? Then I re-read chapter 16 and found the line that sparked this. It's short, mostly dialogue, and born of boredom and author insanity. Beware.**

 **Also: I mention and reference other works here. I DO NOT own them. I only own Ryoko, Levi, their horses, and my Author Avatar. And yes, the horses _are_ named after Fates' MC and his/her kid.**

. ~ ° ~ .

 _ **Dragon's Claw**_

~ **Family Life** ~

 **Names, Horses and the Multiverse**

(Timeline: post-Chapter 15 - Mounting Rescue, one night in the Shepherds' garrison)

(Warnings: slightly crazy conversation, multiple pokes at the Fourth Wall, the Outrealms, the Multiverse and alternate timelines. References to works which I do _not_ own.)

. ~ ° ~ .

Ryoko was _bored_.

So was Levi for the matter.

Knowing this, most of the Shepherds avoided the table the two had claimed for the night and hoped like _hell_ they would not end up targeted by their bored pranking sprees, or end up cleaning after the explosions that would inevitably follow their experimenting with magic.

The female Dragon was nibbling on some leftover bread, while her stalker was half-laying on the table.

"Why'd you name your horse 'Kamui'?" he asked suddenly.

Ryoko shrugged, "Because."

Levi raised an eyebrow at the non-response. "Really?"

"Meh." Was her (very articulate) reply.

Levi nodded sagely, as if there was some hidden meaning to it.

Daraen, who was one of the very few brave or stupid enough to sit close enough to them to hear their conversation, paused, "What?"

"Excuse me." Miriel said, standing beside the neat next to Ryoko with a plate of meat and a salad, "Do you mind if I seat in this location.?"

Ryoko shrugged, "Go nuts."

Levi grunted and acknowledgment, turning back to stare at the blue-haired Dragon.

"So?" he demanded.

"So what?" Ryoko snapped back, ignoring the red-haired mage.

"Why _did_ you name your horse Kamui?" he repeated the question.

"Why is _your_ horse named Kana?" she shot back.

"Evading the question, are you?" he questioned.

"You're not much better, you know?"

"Yeah, but I asked first."

Ryoko was stumped for a second.

Then, in an impressive display of maturity, she stuck her tongue out at him.

Levi cheerfully flipped her off.

"May I inquire as to the purpose of your immature behavior?" Miriel asked suddenly.

Ryoko shrugged, "Relieving boredom, mostly."

She turned back to Levi, "And, for your information, it was the name of the protagonist of some game or other in the Hub World, and it was the first thing that came to mind."

"Curious." Levi commented, "If you're thinking of the same game I am, Kana is that character's kid."

Ryoko shrugged carelessly, "Blame the Author, not me."

"What does _She_ have to do with this?" Levi questioned irritably.

"As if seeing Her Avatar wasn't creepy enough…." He grouched under his breath.

Ryoko shuddered.

Seriously, the Author's Avatar looked a lot like her, just with longer hair with a slightly lighter shade, marginally darker eyes, actual armor (even if it _was_ just chainmail) and feathers in her hair.

The resemblance was unsettling.

"Meeting alternates is so weird." She complained.

"Could you elaborate on that?" Miriel interrupted, an eager look in her face.

Thankful for the distraction from that horrifying memory, Ryoko took out her notebook and opened it at some random page.

"Okay." She started, "First, how much do you know of the Outrealm Gate?"

"The bare essentials." The studious mage replied, "I know of the Einherjar and their functions, but nothing consistent."

"Then you probably know that the Gate, as the name implies, leads to other realms within this universe." Ryoko guessed.

"Fascinating." Miriel commented, "You are implying that there is _more_ than one universe. Even the theories of multiple realms are shaky at best. Do you have any evidence to prove it?"

"Do you want to come the next time we get a month-long vacation time?" Levi offered sarcastically.

"Damn, isn't that about a week?" Ryoko groaned, "What with the paperwork demons and all that rot? My passport's validity ended."

"Damn it all, I had forgotten about those." Levi muttered with a shudder. "And I think by then I'll have to re-apply as well."

"I was not aware passports for inter-universal travel existed." Miriel stated.

"They do." The female Dragon said, "It's just insanely hard to get one."

"Mostly because you gotta be able to handle the trip." The purple-haired man elaborated, " _Those_ levels of insane power are hard to come by. Of course, it's possible to hitch a ride with someone of sufficient power, but very few want to deal with _that_ much paperwork to bring people with them."

Ryoko nodded mournfully, "Artifacts and stuff are fine, but people? Whole other story, I tell you. I actually think they do it on purpose."

"Wouldn't surprise me." Levi muttered darkly, "The main branches of the damn tree are broken, aren't they?"

"Yup." She replied, "That angel, Pit— have you met him?"

He nodded, "Once or twice, yes."

"Well, he said the whole supercomputer got bugged." She told him, "The outer branches are somewhat fine, mostly because they're a bit more stable, but eventually something'll happen to get the Loops over here too. The Admins try to delay it, of course, hence the annoying paperwork."

"If you can get through it all by hand, you hardly have the time to find ways to mess around, no matter how bored you get." Levi summarized.

"They actually hold conventions!" Ryoko cheerfully told him, "I got into a prank wars with one of their members, some world-hopping vampire troll."

"Wait, you actually met _him_?" the male Dragon gaped incredulously. "And you weren't driven to the brink of insanity?"

Ryoko shrugged carelessly, "He got Grima to shut up without wrecking the Seal, and he's actually nice when he isn't screwing with you. He's the one that introduced me to two of Loki's alternates. You know, those I started the prank war that nearly blew the planet."

"Do you think the Readers are getting really confused by now?" Levi questioned idly.

He did not want to know what she did.

That thing had made news all over the multiverse, and that a relative newbie had given as good as she got and contributed to nearly destroying a planet was just the most prominent thing.

Heck, the only reason the planet hadn't blown was probably because Grima had said something to piss off Ryoko and she had begun screaming and cursing at him.

She did that sometimes, when they were alone.

Her skill at cursing was impressive, to say the least. She rarely even had an accent.


	3. For Science!

**Well, here's another one-shot for you to enjoy.**

 **This time it's Ryoko and Miriel's C-Support and something that was sparked by trying to figure out how to continue the Siege of Ravenshear chapter.**

 **I've written this in Miriel's POV mostly for the challenge, because I have some trouble with fancy speech and big words, having learned English from reading fanfics.**

 **Let me know if you liked it in a review, please!**

. ~ ° ~ .

 _ **Dragon's Claw**_

~ **Family Life** ~

 **For Science!**

 _Ryoko / Miriel C-Support_

(Timeline: sometime between chapters 15 and 20)

(Warnings: extremely long words, explosions, slight craziness, experimenting and theorizing. And Ryoko swears once.)

. ~ ° ~ .

Miriel was attempting to bring her latest theory to life.

She carefully measured the magic required to enchant the current prototype— she glanced at her neatly written notes to confirm that it was indeed the twenty-ninth.

She allowed herself a small smile when she noticed that this attempt had yielded greater results than the previous ones already— having lasted halfway through the process rather than merely a quarter of the way through.

It was moments later that the prototype, like all its predecessors, spontaneously exploded.

She adjusted her glasses, grateful for her hastily raised shield, and sighed in slight disappointment.

It was just another postulation that brought the erroneous result.

It didn't bother Miriel.

She was a scientist as well as a magician. Failure was nothing more than another step towards the right solution.

"What are you doing, Miriel?" Ryoko's voice questioned from the doorway, "Trying to make some new spell?"

It was instants after the inquiry had been spoken that the young Dragon— or was it more correct to say 'Dragoness'? —came into the room.

"I am attempting to construct a communications device." Miriel replied, "I believe that there might be a more efficient way to exchange information over long distances than awaiting a courier or a messenger bird, one that cannot be easily intercepted."

She was slightly disappointed in seeing Ryoko's confused and slightly blank look, but it was something that she had resigned herself to.

Very few people actually possessed the intellect to follow her more theoretical speech.

"Why an amulet?" Ryoko inquired, "Why not a mirror or bound books that share content?"

Miriel fully admitted to blinking in surprise before recovering her wits.

"I postulated that the most efficient way of sharing information was speech, and decided that an enchanted mirror would be too easily breakable for this."

"Are you using inscribed runes then?" the Dragon questioned, "Those are so inefficient. It's better to sketch a few arrays and try with one-time tracing instead. It tends to limit violent explosions."

"Are you certain of this?" Miriel inquired.

Traced runes were most often drawn with special inks which, depending on the mixture, could have differing effects, among which was a cheap compound that rendered the runic scheme able to be used exclusively one single time before it was simply erased.

"That's how I haven't destroyed anything outside desks yet." Ryoko replied, "It just keeps down the big ones, though. I've exploded shit plenty of times."

"Oh." Miriel said, at loss for words.

It was somewhat surreal to be able to hold a conversation with someone who was, at times, more uncouth than that uncouth buffoon Vaike.

It appeared, though, that that sort of language was more reserved towards unfavored situations, mornings and when suffering from inebriation, which was more than anyone could ever hope from the blond fool.

"You should focus on something else." Ryoko said, interrupting her pondering, "Passing along speech is really…" she frowned, thinking, "not worth it. Hard."

"Impractical." Miriel offered belatedly.

"Yeah." The Dragon nodded, "Im-prac-ti-cal. Try pulsing magic first. Then thought-speech. If it works, go for actual speech."

"Your words are so hard…" she muttered to herself, pouting.

The red-haired magician debated replying for a moment, but decided that it would be discourteous.

"Do you have any theories to propose on that?" she inquired.

Ryoko was silent for a couple of seconds.

"Have you tried using the master/slave system?" she suggested, "Having just one sending would be better at first."

Miriel's eyes widened slightly at the implications, and she hastily wrote the possibilities on a spare piece of parchment.

"Then I could begin increasing the communication capabilities of the receivers once that works." She concluded.

"Exactly." Ryoko confirmed.

She took another piece of loose parchment and quickly wrote down two runic matrices, though the second one appeared to be a piece of some other spell or chain.

"These are two communication arrays I know." The blue-haired woman explained, "The first one is in spell runes— a rare Dragon skill called 'Link' that takes forever and a day to learn and lets me link to other Dragons with active Sky-Eyes. You'll need to remove that and rank it down, but meh."

She then pointed to the second array, "These are old sealing runes. It's what allows for energy transfer between me and the actual Seal, as far as I can tell. It's probably for sending commands."

Miriel stared, feeling slightly overwhelmed.

"Well, gotta go! Bye!"

With that, Ryoko was gone.

She smiled to herself.

This would greatly increase her chances of success! And those arrays! If she converted everything to basic traced runes she could easily sketch and test a structure for the communications enchantments!

She quickly got to work.


End file.
